1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tray drive mechanism for an optical disc apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, tray drive mechanisms designed to reduce manufacturing costs of optical disc apparatus are known in which a disc clamping operation and a tray opening and closing operation are driven by a feed motor for feeding an optical pickup in a radial direction of an optical disc. (Refer, for example, to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications 2000-11511 and 2000-339877.)
According to the tray drive mechanism disclosed in the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2000-11511, a switch lever is rotated by a rack provided at one end of an optical pickup, and this rotation of the switch lever causes a slide member to slide. This sliding movement of the slide member causes a boss provided on the slide member to push a cam groove provided on the tray, whereby the tray slightly slides in a direction to open. This sliding movement of the tray causes a rack provided on a rear face of the tray to mesh with a gear receiving a driving force transferred from a feed motor, whereby the tray is opened.
According to the tray drive mechanism disclosed in the above-referred Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2000-339877, a plate member which connects and supports plural gears for transferring the output of a feed motor is slided in order to transfer the output of the feed motor to either an optical pickup or a gear for opening and closing a tray. For feeding the optical pickup, a lead screw with which the optical pickup is engaged is rotated by the output of the feed motor transferred by the above-described gear.
However, the tray drive mechanism according to the above Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2000-11511 has drawbacks in that it requires, e.g., the switch lever to be rotated by the rack provided on the optical pickup, and the slide member to be slided by the rotation of the switch lever. This results in a complicated structure and higher, rather than lower, manufacturing cost of the optical disc apparatus. Furthermore, it is required therein to provide, at one end of the optical pickup, a rack for rotating the switch lever, so that the optical pickup cannot be reduced in size.
Likewise, the tray drive mechanism according to the above Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2000-339877 has drawbacks in that it requires, e.g., the plate member and the driving mechanism for driving the plate member, resulting in a complicated structure and higher, rather than lower, manufacturing cost of the optical disc apparatus. In addition, an additional cost is needed to manufacture the lead screw for feeding the optical pickup, so that the manufacturing cost of the optical disc apparatus cannot be reduced.